HIGH POINT, N.C., Nov. 25, 2009 ? Dr. Larry Simpson, professor of history at High Point University, recently wrote for the anthology, ?Political Islam from Muhammad to Ahmadinejad.? The work will be published on Nov. 30.
“The chapter I wrote came from a paper I presented in 2008 at the inaugural conference of the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa in Washington, D.C.,” Simpson says. “The chapter focuses on dramatic events that occurred in Somalia in the period between 1899 and 1920, which [are] associated with the rebellion of Muhammad ?Abdille Hassan, who is often called the ?Mad Mullah.'”
Simpson’s thesis is that the kind of radical, politicized Islam that the Somali leaders sought to employ to unite Somalis under Hassan’s authority and against the British, Italians and Ethiopians proved incapable of the task.
“I argue that this was largely because traditional Somali institutions and customs were incongruent with the alien ideas and practice[s] that the ?Mad Mullah? used in the uprising,” Simpson explains.
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Chris DudleyVice President for [email protected]